Цитаты из книги The Aeronaut's Windlass

Зависимость от кого-то в вопросах пропитания неизбежно ведет к полной потере самостоятельности.

Всем отлично известно, что сбиваясь в стаи, люди обыкновенно теряют последние остатки здравомыслия.

— Мы ведь цивилизованное общество, правда?
Эстербрук сощурил глаза.
— С каких это пор, мисс? Нами правит демократия.

«Нельзя знать заранее, что случится потом, Чудачка. Но когда это случится, мы обе, чёрт побери, встретим будущее, стоя в полный рост».

The moment you can see the mistmaw without feeling horrible, you aren’t a soldier anymore, Miss Lancaster. You’re . . . something of a monster, perhaps.

Once a nation ceases to believe that they can win a war, that war is lost.

“It’s a tradition,” Grimm said. “Were traditions rational, they’d be procedures.”

Strategy and tactics, discipline and protocol are necessary, but they’re just the beginning. You have to know people, Byron. How they think, what motivates them. Watch. Learn.

When we connect with our fellow mortal souls, something quite remarkable has happened. And perhaps one day, if we all work at it diligently and manage not to exterminate one another, we may even be able to see through another’s eyes.

A wonderful place, the mind, but if it has any kind of disappointing failure, it’s that it always attempts to put new things into the context of things which are already familiar to it.

Bridget blinked once. “Books do not have souls, sir.” “Those who write them do,” Ferus said. “They leave bits and pieces behind them when they lay down the words, some scraps and smears of their essential nature.” He sniffed. “Most untidy, really—but assemble enough scraps and one might have something approaching a whole.” “You believe that the library has a soul,” Bridget said carefully. “I do not believe it, young lady,” Ferus said rather stiffly. “I know it.”

Rowl said, “This girl has too many things in her head, I think.” Folly replied, “Oh, the cat is right. All the things I’ve forgotten plus all the things I haven’t. I keep forgetting over which ones I need to throw a dust tarp.”

“It seems simple enough,” Bridget said. “The most difficult things often are,” said Lord Albion.

“The heart of democracy is violence, Miss Tagwynn,” Esterbrook said. “In order to decide what to do, we take a count of everyone for and against it, and then do whatever the larger side wishes to do. We’re having a symbolic battle, its outcome decided by simple numbers...”

Politics is the purview of scoundrels, tyrants, and fools. I only observe because I prefer not to become their victim.

“It is often very useful for others to think you less intelligent than you are,” Benedict said, his tone amused. “It works particularly well against those who aren’t as intelligent as you in the first place.”

«Смерть наша легка как пёрышко, а долг тяжелее самого Копья, не так ли?».

«Деньги - это безумие, иллюзия-обманка. На самом деле они состоят не из металла. Они сделаны из времени. Сколько стоит чьё-то время? Стоит кому-то убедить побольше людей, что его время бесценно, и он зарабатывает огромные кучи денег. Потому-то время можно тратить, - вот только возместить его не получится».

«Вот и теперь ему следует просто потерпеть, пока люди не прекратят свою нелепую суету. Кот он или не кот, в конце концов?».

«- Балует она кота.

- Эта привилегия не каждому достаётся, - самодовольно отметил Роуль».